U.S. men seek first gymnastics team medal since 2008

United States men's gymnastics will seek its first Olympic team medal when the Tokyo Olympics team final gets underway on Monday, July 26.

The team -- which includes Brody Malone, Sam Mikulak, Yul Moldauer and Shane Wiskus — could also secure the first Olympic medal for three-time Olympian Mikulak, who is competing in his final Games and had previously finished as high as fourth individually. The other three team members are Olympic debutants. Mikulak will have another medal opportunity in the parallel bars event final.

SEE MORE: Sam Mikulak hits 15.433 parallel bars routine

It will be a tall task, however, as the top three teams in qualifications were significantly ahead of the No. 4 Team USA. Host nation Japan qualified first with a 262.251, China was second with a 262.061, athletes from the Russian Olympic Committee were third with a 261.945 and the Americans scored a 256.761.

Japan, Russia and China went 1-2-3 in this event at the Rio Olympics.

Japan is favored to win at home, even without longtime star Kohei Uchimura, who previously was a part of three medal-winning teams. This time around, Uchimura was only competing on the high bar, but fell off the apparatus and missed the event final. 

SEE MORE: Japan's Uchimura falls off high bar in men's gymnastics

The Russian squad won the 2019 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships team final and has the reigning world all-around champion in Nikita Nagornyy. It also has Artur Dalaloyan, the 2018 world all-around champion who is competing about three months after tearing his Achilles. 

The Chinese team won the 2018 world title and has multiple multi-time world medalists on its Tokyo team. 

How to watch

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The men's gymnastics team final will air on NBC at 8:30 p.m. ET on July 26